For many years built in vacuum syustems for homes and/or components thereof have been provided by several manufacturers. Also some of them are installed, so when an operator enters an end of the portable vacuum hose to a wall or floor outlet, a switch is moved, completing a low voltage control circuit. Upon such closing of a low voltage control circuit, such as a .gtoreq.volt circuit, a higher voltage circuit, generally 110 to 115 volts in the U.S.A., is thereby remotely turned on to start the central vacuum power unit, and soon the operator is vacuuming a selected area. Or the operator may be using a vacuum system where a low voltage switch is available at or nearby the end of the portable vacuum base.
If the operator decides the power of the suction is not enough to loosen the dirt or debris, he or she may operate another unit to loosen such dirt. In general these additional cleaning units are referred to as rotating brushes or beater bars. To be effective their electric motors should be supplied by electrical power having a higher voltage, such as 110 to 115 volts. So the lower voltage power of 24 volts available at the wall vacuum outlet is not to be used. Most often a 110 volt outlet is not generally conveniently located near the wall vacuum outlet. This generally necessitates the use of an extension cord to transmit the 110 to 115 volt electrical power from the conventional electrical outlet to the 110 to 115 volt electrical power cord associated with the electrical motor which drives the rotating cleaning brushes or beater bars.
Although many manufacturers and earlier inventors have provided low voltage circuits and their controls throughout a built in vacuum system, as illustrated, for example, in U.S. Patents such as:
Mr. Breslin's U.S. Pat. No. 3,258,553 entitled "Electrical Connector for Wires Subject to Flexing";
Mr. Breslin's U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,111 entitled "Apparatus for Establishing a Combined Fluid Conduit and Electrical Circuit Ssytem";
Mr. Meadows' U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,457 entitled "Vacuum Cleaning Apparatus";
Mr. Lindsay's U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,427 entitled "Outlet Assembly for a Vacuum Cleaning System"; and
Messrs. Neroni and Byers' U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,923 entitled "Vacuum Cleaning Tool Adapter with Electrical Control Means",
none of these inventors, and no available products on the market are known to present a wall or floor outlet assembly for receiving both built in vacuum cleaning hoses and their low voltage power components, and high voltage electrical power receptacles for plugging in higher voltage electrical cords.